Safety-Kleen's Failure to Warn of Toxic Hazards
Notwithstanding Safety-Kleen's knowledge of the cancer hazard presented by Safety-Kleen 105 Solvent, Safety-Kleen has never provided any warnings that exposure to its product can cause cancer. Rather than warning customers and their employees of these and many other toxic hazards, Safety-Kleen led customers and their employees to believe that the solvent was nontoxic and safe.
The form contract that Safety-Kleen used in dealings with its customers stated that Safety-Kleen 105 Solvent is "by definition, slightly toxic to relatively nontoxic." This same language appears in the Operator's Manual for the parts washer machine. The statement is more than inaccurate; it is misleading. Recycled hazardous waste that contains many carcinogens and other toxins and is classified by the U.S. EPA as "toxic" cannot, by definition, be "relatively nontoxic." The statement was intended to assure customers and their employees that they could use the parts washer machine without harm.
The California Supreme Court has condemned statements regarding hazardous products which provide false assurances to users. In an early case the Court said: "There is a particular need for a sufficient warning where, as here, there is a representation that the product is not dangerous." Tingey v. E.F. Houghton & Co. (1947) 30 Cal.2d at 103.
The Court in Maize v. Atlantic Refining Co. (Pa. 1945) 41 A.2d 850, held that a product called "Safety-Kleen" was misleading, because these words "would naturally lull the user of that fluid so-named into a false sense of security" and the prominence of the word "Safety" would "exclude from [the user's] mind that ‘provident fear' which has been characterized as ‘the mother of safety.'"
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